Oakville native hosts traveling ‘Price Is Right’ show at FoxNewton hasn’t looked back since hosting first game show

by Kari Williams

September 26, 2012

Oakville Senior High School alumnus Todd Newton will urge St. Louisans to “come on down,” as he hosts the traveling “The Price Is Right,” which stops Friday, Oct. 5, at the Fabulous Fox Theatre.

“It’s the show I’m looking forward to the most,” Newton said of returning to St. Louis. “As a kid, I used to go to the Fox to see shows ... To be able to stand on that stage that I’ve watched others perform on so many times and to look down in the audience and see my mom and dad, that’s really going to be a feeling of things coming full circle for me.”

Newton said though he has been all over the world, coming back to his hometown is wonderful.

“I’ve been all over the world, but I’ve never had a slice of pizza I enjoy more than Imo’s ... There’s just something about the people here that they never forget you,” he said. “No matter what I do, whether it’s a television project or ‘The Price Is Right’ stage show or a new book, they’re always behind me 100 percent. It’s just a wonderful place to say you grew up.”

The south county native got involved with the live stage show of ‘The Price Is Right’ in 2002, before which he hosted “Whammy!” on the Game Show Network.

“I jumped at (the chance to host ‘The Price Is Right’) because obviously ‘The Price Is Right’ is the very top of the game-show mountain,” Newton said. “To be associated with that brand, (that) empire, was just an honor for me.”

Newton said when he was young he thought all he wanted to do was be on the radio. And he lived out that childhood dream as a disc jockey in St. Louis under the name Rikk Idol in the ’90s.

He used to be “enamored” with listening to DJs talk in between songs.

“I know now looking back what I was really excited about ... (was that they were) entertaining so many people ... solely with their personalities just by being themselves,” Newton said.

He left St. Louis in 1995 to take a job with E! Entertainment television, where he stayed for 12 years. But in 1999, the Oakville graduate was able to host his first game show, “Hollywood Showdown.”

“The first day I stepped on the set and I got to share that moment with a contestant when they won a lot of money ... I just enjoyed the live feel of it. I knew that was what I was designed to do, and I’ve never looked back,” he said.